Leaderboard

bit bored yesterday...i changed all the wrappers around on some Cadburys celebration's.......Mrs A wasn't happy...when she got her snickers in a Twix.. ken anderson...ne...1...celebrations dept.

Here's a few photos from our group PSSA visit to the superb Newark Air Museum - we took some of our models and braved the cold and the wet for a couple of group photos with some impressive backdrops of Buccaneers and Vulcans!

Anyway, icing the Christmas cake this morning, I thought, in tribute to misfortunes, I’ll do a Santa does wheely touch and go theme. Sledge ruts on.

Got to use my patent wire-bender for the first time ever making new 8 gauge U/C for the new 2.75" wheels (with a bigger internal diameter than the original smaller 10 gauge ones). Quickly discovered that the trick was to hold the first bend (axle) flat on the plate to ensure an accurate parallel second bend: And a similar dodge for the final bend which is at 90° to the rest: This all now looks like it'll cope with our patch much better: Needless to say weight crept up by 5oz (from 5.1 to 5.4lbs) and there'll be a tad more drag, but can live with all this: Turns out that the heavier gear didn't change the CG at all, which is still at 3.75". But while it was on the stand I experimented with adding 10g weights to the tail and noted how much the CG moved aft - 1/8" (3mm) each time - which would be helpful for my next flying tests at the patch:

Depending on available space you could always use an engine mount (the separate arm variety)

Might have flown my last day of 2021 today. Just me and my buddy tutor on a boggy car field, but the flight strip was wet but ok. A 1,000,000 curious sheep can to see us. Managed to use 4 batteries down to about 30% with a horizontal sock, about 6 mpg and gusting. Take-off were good, bit steep as the wind lifted the light plane, but flew round and round, figs of 8 and then a landing. It came down a treat, no bangs or bounces, no testing of recent glued repairs, and NO buddy interventions. 2 and 3rd flights the same though the gusts were tricky close to landing, but corrected and survived, plane intact despite a bit of a bounce (or 3). So, the end i think (might try on thursday) to my first year as a rookie. Nearly 60 years between my last flight (control line) in the village park to facing the real challenge of R/C. It has been brilliant, hard at times, but when it all works, what a great way to spend time, so pleased I finally got to get going again. I have learnt a lot and have many to thank including all the help here on this site. I wish you all a Happy Xmas, and a Very Good New Year full of smooth landings no matter what.

It took me the best part of two days to figure out the design and make the removable cowl, I drew it up roughly on tracing paper over the plan, transferred it to balsa, cut it out and assembled it on the fly. The first effort was scrapped as the angles were not right, what looked ok in 2D didn't work in 3D: Compared to what I was aiming for: The whole cowl is to be removable, secured by two screws each side, fabricated from 1/8" sheet for the sides and underside with planking forming the top deck and a 1/4' front nosepiece. I'll use 1/64" ply to simulate the panel overlaps and the whole will be covered in lightweight cloth and Eze-Kote before painting. Much happier with the basic shape of this one: At some point I'll have to tackle the dummy air-cooled VW engine, I've not entirely worked out how I'm going to do this yet .............

Take care then as it may not have been inspected for some years. Although heavily creosoted, these poles can (and do) suffer from decay eventually. There should be a production date 10 feet above the foot of the pole so you can gauge how deeply it’s buried and its age. Check for rot around the base and further up - it should “ring” when hit with a decent sized hammer - look out for a dull sound. If any suspect areas are discovered, a thin probe shouldn’t be able to be pushed into the wood to any extent. Sorry Pat, I hadn’t spotted your reply on this new page…but now it’s posted it might as well stay in order to reinforce the potential hazards of climbing an unmaintained pole.

I think you missed a letter, Peter...

Yep, I know, I was there but I still kept my parallel motion board for many years even though I was also using CAD. It’s the same with many things that we used to do, pre calculators and pre decimalisation- ready reckoners were the order of the day for £SD calculations. Well off topic but can’t resist the odd plunge into nostalgia!

That's good but a word of caution, the pole may not still be in a safe condition to be climbed. Best to site the camera at a height that can be reached by step ladders or short ladder unless there's an ex linesman who knows how to test that it is safe to be climbed. There used to be one or two accidents a year, sometimes fatal, involving linesmen who didn't check before climbing.

Pat, fortunately it's a disused pole.

Monsieur Plod is alive and well then.

Strangely, we always get our problems in summer so tractor tracks haven't yet been an issue...... I actually have an unused action cam which I could try next year (got it to see how a now-deceased rat was entering our loft!) - thanks for the idea.

Nick see attached rough sketch. eyelets are the crimp/solder type and piano wire brace length is adjusted once you have found weight position and soldered in situ to the eyelet. top firewall one is already pre done so only weight end subjected to soldering heat. Penny washers spread load but could use anchor nuts in fire wall if prefered. Nothing attached to the cowl.

So a bit of an update on my engine(ering) projects, the micron/owat adjustable head didn't work out as well as I hoped so a conventional one was made but I now need to make a new piston, after an hours running it's a little on the slack side.

Hi David, Thanks for your query. The fin fairings are now finished and shaped, but I didn't think they were significant enough to post pictures. I'll try to post some shortly. Tailplane Incidence I wondered if anyone can tell me what incidence the all moving tail should be set at relative to the wing? With my wing propped up at 0 degrees (parallel to my bench), I have -1mm at the leading edge of the tailplane. Alternatively, with the tailplane propped at 0 degrees I have +2.5mm at the wing leading edge. Does this sound about right? Regards, Steve

@Graham Davies 3 The finished article, sorry it took longer than planned, had a family issue that delayed things @Alan Hiltonprinted 4 off for you Alan

Heater works but the muffler was a cheap straight through type, so need to find a supplier of the correct type. Any links to an ebay supplier appreciated as the majority I can see are the cheap clones.

We have a family of red Kites living in a wood close to our flying field. They do not normally bother is and we keep a mutual distance. However one did take exception to my MAK 15 MP, a Russian powered glider   No contact was made but you can see why it didn't like it in its territory Edited By Peter Miller on 23/07/2020 08:09:01

We have recently had intruder vandals . They removed one of our fold down tables but in the process did considerable damage ! Had they had a brain cell between them then a simple philips screw driver would have undone one ! Instead they used wire cutters and even a saw to try and cut the fence post ?